In the article, we outlined features Firestorm considers “must-haves” when selecting a monitoring tool. From the article:

Immediate Engagement and Alerts: You’ve seen the commercials: “That is so 17 seconds ago.” Social media has created an overload of messaging and millions of “news-desks of one.” As a result, it is imperative that a social media monitoring tool provide real-time or near real-time monitoring and alerts to foster immediate engagement (and damage control) as needed. How long is it acceptable to your organization for a negative review posted by a client to remain visible to the world? How long is it acceptable for confidential client information breached by your organization to remain public? In social media, the whole world is watching all of the time. Additionally, identifying and interacting with key influencers of your brand can make a huge impact during both calm and crisis.

Logical Workflow: Different social tools are used by varied audiences – an organization’s clients and employees on Twitter may not be the same as those on LinkedIn, although there may be some overlap. Robust social media monitoring tools also provide a logical workflow that makes it simple to alert the right person within an organization to take appropriate action. Integrating your Organization’s Crisis Management Plan with these tools will ensure the most rapid response and reaction from the right people who can directly impact the outcome.

Variety of Applications Monitored: Most social media monitoring tools address primary social networks and analytics: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Google Analytics. Many include pick-lists of a variety of other sites a well.

Complexity: While the home web page of a chosen monitoring tool may appear clean, contemporary and well-designed, the application itself may prove overly complicated for even the most sophisticated user. Make sure the actual end-users in your organization are involved in the buying decision, and that it meets all internal and external monitoring needs.

Engagement:Social Media is, at its core, about engagement. It allows instant access to customers and clients in a manner that was never previously attainable. It allows you to listen and respond – immediately. It allows you to zero in on specific issues, questions and concerns and respond in an unprecedented manner. Nevertheless, many organizations and companies of all kinds have yet to truly grasp the power of listening to and engaging with their audiences. Rather, they broadcast outbound messages only. Social media, as its name suggests, mandates two-way communication; it has revolutionized and streamlined the way to create and develop trusted relationships.

Record-Keeping and Reporting: As social media use in your organization grows, so too will the requirements for reporting, many requirements mandated by various regulatory agencies. Types of data to include may measure social audience sentiment, mentions, conversions, competitor analyses, and a variety of other data important to your organization and industry regulators. Carefully consider the ability to easily mine data and deliver results in multiple combinations and reporting views.

Global/Multilingual: Global organizations with global clients and employees must have the ability to track social media mentions, campaigns and sentiment worldwide in multiple languages, especially in a crisis situation. If your organization has offices outside the US, trying to track what is going on in the wake of a disaster is daunting.

Triggers and Response:Social Media Monitoring Tools are effective and integral to a social media strategy. Yet, they are only as effective as those individuals that maintain them. Understand what you are monitoring and why, and know what the ‘triggers’ are to take action. Designate the team that will respond, including third party vendors who have capabilities that may not be resident in your organization; document and train on the action steps, and be ready to implement immediately. Without these plans and procedures in place—tools are just tools- like those gathering dust in your garage.

Given the above, Firestorm is pleased to announce that after significant investigation and due diligence, we have selected uberVU as our partner of choice for monitoring and engagement for our internal needs and on behalf of our clients.

In their own words: “uberVU was born out of frustration with first generation social media tools for the enterprise.” As marketers, uberVU believes social is going to revolutionize how companies connect with customers and audience. Building that relationship with first generation tools, however, is so much manual work that it might not be worth it.

uberVU was built with the understanding that marketers and communication management professionals shouldn’t waste time running reports and numbers in 10 different dashboards just to get a sense of what’s going on. They deliver monitoring, engagement, collaboration and reporting in a single, simple dashboard. And they automate most of a social media marketer’s tedious manual work: finding insights, detecting influencer mentions, detecting trending stories, and suggesting engaging content to post.

uberVU is the only end-to-end social intelligence dashboard that covers all 4 social media value pillars: Monitoring, Analytics & Reporting, Engagement, and Workflow. And they do so with a global audience in mind.

Current uberVU clients include Ogilvy, Microsoft, NBC, Nielsen, BASF, The World Bank and many others. uberVU was a 2008 Seedcamp winner, and are backed by experienced and visionary investors. Firestorm is very excited to host a February webinar with uberVu to explore best practices in use and monitoring. To learn more about uberVU and Communications Management in Calm and Crisis, please contact us at (800) 321-2219 or email [email protected]

Firestorm has worked with hundreds of businesses, organizations and schools to keep tens of thousands of employees, customers and students safer. Firestorm provided crisis management and crisis communications services to Virginia Tech after the shootings, and more recently to Littleton, CO, Roswell, NM and Jefferson County School District in Colorado (location of Columbine) among others.

HEADQUARTERS

In a Crisis now? Call us: 770-643-1114

“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”

How you answer the question “What should we do now?” can have far reaching implications for your company or organization. Preparedness and Resiliency are key brand attributes for every company. Crises come as surprises. Control of events and message are lost. Impacts accelerate. Public scrutiny intensifies.

Are you ready? How do you know? Are you sure?

Most executives are trained to make decisions based upon information, data, and policy.

In a crisis,

Information is generally wrong

Data is not available

Policies do not exist

Command & Control is lost

Brand & reputation are under attack

Leadership is involved and engaged personally

Impacts are disproportional

Events are escalating

Speed is quality or even survival

You are the center of media focus

The above dynamics work aggressively against traditional empirical management decision processes. Decisions must be made quickly with limited and often incorrect information.

A crisis is not business as usual. A crisis is business as unusual.

Crises have a short duration, but have consequences that can determine the viability of a business or organization for years to come. If you are explaining, you are losing.

Crises have impacts – for good and bad. Every crisis starts with a combination of opportunity and danger. Where the risk/crisis conundrum balances depends upon your initial critical decisions, your crisis communications, your monitoring of events, and your adjustments made to strategy and actions as events develop. Your company’s reputation, brand, legacy, and profitability hang in the balance in a crisis. Crises are personal. Every crisis is a human crisis. It is your company. It is your people. It is your brand. It is your reputation. It is your career. Doing the wrong thing or doing nothing can create a point of no return.

We Help Clients Take Control of Crisis

In crisis, we assist senior management in developing or implementing a Crisis Management Plan. We provide advice and insight to help managers make crucial decisions, and communication experts to assist with social media communications and public relations. Our Senior Team is ready to help your senior team.

Don’t Let Your First Response Become Your Second Crisis

As the leading crisis management company, our founders, executives, principals, and Executive Council are available to assist as needed. We put together the right team for you.

Call Us Today for a free assessment and discover how we can help in calm and in crisis. 770-643-1114